Stockport council leader and Greater Manchester planning chief Sue Derbyshire has called for the government to urgently review its housing policy and reconsider its extended Right to Buy scheme.

Sue Derbyshire, who leads on Greater Manchester’s combined authority on housing and planning, urged ministers to listen to the ‘very soft voices’ of those desperate for a home at the Lib Dem autumn conference.

She said Right to Buy changes - which will see the scheme extended to 1.3m more housing association tenants - would leave authorities short of social housing.

Bosses from the charity Shelter revealed this month that one in three councils had not replaced a single home sold under the scheme - first introduced by Margaret Thatcher - since 2012.

Charity bosses said just 8pc of town halls across the country had built enough to replace half of their stock sold through the scheme, which allows council tenants to buy their homes.

Coun Derbyshire said: “We need to not only listen to the very clear voices of objectors, but also to the very soft voices of those who desperately need housing.

“We need to find new ways to talk to our communities to make them recognise the need for more housing in their area and develop the incentives needed to make more housing acceptable to them.

“My council stands to lose very badly under the proposed Right to Buy changes. Local housing associations will lose properties and we will be forced to sell more council houses.

“We have the largest stock in the north west and relatively high land and house values. At the same time we have over 6,000 people on our waiting lists.”

Stockport (Image: Mark Waugh)

A motion at the conference highlighted Lib Dem members’ concerns over the government ‘failing’ to build the extra 300,000 homes needed each year to keep up with demand.

It stated Right to Buy changes would lead to a ‘drastic reduction’ in the amount of social and affordable housing available, with thousands in the ‘greatest need’ suffering.

It read: “Conservative plans to force councils to sell off their most valuable housing stock which will create ‘social cleansing’ in high value areas, push up living costs of less affluent residents forced to live further from jobs, and lead to a shortage of affordable housing for larger families.”

Coun Derbyshire added: “We need to find more land for house building, and we need to persuade our communities to accept more houses being built near them.

“People need to realise that the mythical place called ‘somewhere else’, where land for houses is plenty, simply does not exist.

“The ‘easy answer’ of building on brownfield sites is rarely an easy answer in practice as such sites are often surrounded by congested roads, full schools and over-stretched local services, and a planner’s brownfield site is often a much loved open space to local residents.”